If you want to know how to get started using YNAB, you’re in the right place! I’ve been using YNAB for over a decade and teaching other people how to use it for several years. YNAB is my jam. I love walking people through it, step by step, so that they not only learn how and why to use this magical, life changing money management tool, but also how to make it fit their actual life.

One of the first things I ask people to do when they begin working with me is to document all of their expenses - what they spend money on, how much, how often, that sort of thing. What day is the car payment deducted, how much do you really spend on groceries, how much do you spend on the holidays?

Oof. That last one is a doozy, isn’t it? At least with the groceries, you can look back over the last few months and come up with a number, but then there’s things like the holidays that are a little more...vague.

So, you fell off the wagon. You were doing good for a little while - you’d started managing your money differently. Maybe you were keeping track of your expenses, keeping your awareness around your spending high. You had stopped using your credit cards, maybe even started putting money away for emergency savings, you’d made a plan and had been chugging away at it. Things were going well, if slowly.

And then.

So, you fell off the wagon. You were doing good for a little while - you’d started managing your money differently. Maybe you were keeping track of your expenses, keeping your awareness around your spending high. You had stopped using your credit cards, maybe even started putting money away for emergency savings, you’d made a plan and had been chugging away at it. Things were going well, if slowly.

Do you ever find yourself saying, “Oh, I know I shouldn’t spend that, but…”, or “I know it seems extravagant, but…” in a dismissive way - in a way that indicates that you should feel guilty or ashamed of your spending?

I want you to try an exercise with me today. Take a deep breath, get out of your chair, and touch your toes.

Whoops, sorry - not that kind of exercise. Phew! You can stay sitting right where you are for this one. Sit, close your eyes, and take a deep breath (deep breathing is required for all kinds of exercises, it’s a rule).

Think about something that’s out of reach for you, financially.

This could be something grand, like a big international vacation - or something more mundane but also important, like getting a new couch when your old one kicks the bucket, or funding your emergency savings account.

This was going to be a review of You Need A Budget (YNAB). You know, an unbiased look at the pros and cons of a very popular piece of personal finance software. And while I am going to talk about the pros and cons of YNAB, I can’t bury the lead.

You guys, I love YNAB so much.

I’m a YNAB evangelist and I don’t care who knows it. I can’t pretend to be unbiased about this at all. I’ve been using YNAB for a decade and use it with 100% of my clients. I’ve tried other tools and they just...fall short.

That said, YNAB isn’t for everyone (who said that?? Not me!). Here’s how to tell if it’s right for you.

I talk about budgeting a lot here. It’s...kind of my thing. But if you’ve read some of my postsaboutbudgeting you’ve probably figured out that I don’t do “regular budgets”. I only do good budgets.

How do you make a good budget? Whether you’re building a better budget or making a gourmet meal, what do you start with? Better ingredients. If your building blocks aren’t right, how can your budget be right? You wouldn’t make a third-date-dinner with stale ingredients, would you? Why do you keep making “budgets” without of date ideas and tools?

You’ve heard about budgeting. When you go down the rabbit hole of the internet trying to figure out how to get a handle on where your money is all going, you keep hearing, “get a budget!” or “try this software!” which, when you have a variable income, is like telling someone with a gushing head wound “have you thought about a bandage?”

Not helpful.

What if there was a way to budget your money that worked great for variable incomes?

There is - it’s called zero based budgeting. It’s a different system than what most budgeting systems are, which is why it works so much better for this instance. Whether you’re a freelancer, working a steady job with a side hustle, in a commission based job, or are a business owner - you can budget in a way that actually works.